Comments on: PSPgo price already slashed

By: James Holland

James Holland — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:15:02 +0000

Sorry Mark, but we’re quite busy with other areas of the site as well as answering comments on stories. I’d love to enter into this further, but it seems we’re going in circles. There are plenty of examples (cited above) where we’ve given Sony a well-deserved slap on the back. Here, as I explained, we’re simply highlighting tumbling prices and asking a valid question about the timing of cuts. I’m not sure where your grievance is, or if you still have one. Regardless, hope you bought your PSPgo at the new, lower, cost.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:58:19 +0000

And the silence speaks for itself…..

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:15:50 +0000

“Your allegations of Sony-bashing are hugely wide of the mark”

I don’t think so… In your own words….

“The question remains, why have these big players decided now is the time for a price cut? Is the PSPgo really doing that badly?”

By: James Holland

James Holland — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:26:14 +0000

I don’t see price cuts as a sign of manufacturer desperation. Sony won’t have cut the prices they’re selling them to retailers as you point out Mark, this is resellers eating into their own margins. But why? As you’ve already said, it’s because nobody was selling them at the RRP.

What we’ve done is highlight that this isn’t a one-off deal from a single retailer: it’s wider. We’re simply calling attention to it and (hoping) our readers get the best deal possible. Not sure why you’d object to that: you’ve clearly been keeping an eye on the price yourself.

Your allegations of Sony-bashing are hugely wide of the mark, and I think you’ve misunderstood us. Why would we report on a gadget we didn’t think there was interest in? Where’s the benefit for our readers? Fact is, the PSPgo is a good, solid device. If there’s the opportunity to get it for a lower price, or the possibility it could fall further, we’re duty bound to report that. In fact, you’d be entitled to have much stronger words with us if we didn’t.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:51:37 +0000

You have twisted my words there. The point is there is a very large retailer margin on the GO (because there is no UMD sales to make up for low margins), because of this, retailers that don’t have gaming as their only business (i.e. mostly supermarkets, and more generic retailers) don’t need to rely on UMD sales, and can undercut those that do have to rely on them. The result is, not that people weren’t buying the PSP GO (they were, if you bothered to check the sale figures, PSP sales increased 100% last week) it’s that they were buying them from retailers that were selling them for less than RRP. All that’s happened, is those that were missing out on PSP sales as they kept to the RRP and kept their margins, they were forced to comply to the lower price, or risk selling none, and/or having unsold stock.

It’s a price war driven mainly by supermarkets, as correctly identified by El-Reg, however you took the fanboy Joystiq spin, that Sony were driving this out of some kind of desperation.

By: Joe Minihane

Joe Minihane — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:26:38 +0000

Hi Mark

Cheers for your reply. I’m a massive fan of The Register and the work it does. However, we’re very different sites and write in a different style. I would refute any suggestions that this is “fanboy reporting”. We have no favourites and call out any company or exec if there are issues.

We’re simply raising questions which have been aired to us. You’re answering the question right there: there are no sales at the RRP, so prices have had to be cut. Surely that’s an issue for Sony and retaielrs in the lead up to Christmas.

Again, keep your comments coming. We love keeping in touch with readers and what they think.

Cheers

Joe

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:22:09 +0000

Is it REALLY too pricey?

A PSP3000 is £140 (and comes with 1GB Memory Stick). The PSP GO comes with 16GB. A 16GB Memory Stick is £60. There is your £200 price right there, ignorging the better screen of the PSPGo, the Bluetooth and the multitude of functionality benefits that brings, and the £70 of free games that Sony are giving away for a very limited period.

You would have to be insane to choose a PSP3000 over a GO personally.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:19:45 +0000

The price has dropped so quickly, quite simply because very few outlets were actually selling it at that price… And those that were wishfully thinking they could sell at RRP were not get ANY sales, because so many other outlets were undercutting them (because they good, thanks to the high retailer margins on the UMD-less PSPGO).

Compare your fanboy reporting of this to the Registers.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/10/06/psp_go_price_war/

And tell me you aren’t just publishing sensationalist BS.

By: Stephen. E

Stephen. E — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:09:10 +0000

It’s still too pricey. £50 less than a fully-fledged Blu-ray playing PS3. That’s Insania (to coin a Peter Andre song, which bizarrely popped into my brainbox).

By: Joe Minihane

Joe Minihane — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:34:30 +0000

Hi Mark

Thanks for your comment. As I’ve said before, we don’t hate Sony, see our 5 star review of the PS3 Slim and stacks of glowing coverage about the PSPgo

Here we are simply reporting the fact that there has been a price drop. There are questions raised by this: as you say, no one you know bought a PSPgo for £225. The question is, why has the price dropped so quickly? It’ll be interesting to see the sales figures. This isn’t Sony hate. We’d do the same for Nintendo, Microsoft and any other gadget manufacturer.

There’s a lot of interest in this and it’s great that you’re keen to air your views, keep them coming.

Cheers

Joe